Microsoft Wins Emergency Stay of Judge's Ban on Word Product Sales

A federal appeals court has granted Microsoft’s emergency appeal of a Texas federal judge’s order that would have banned the computer Goliath from continuing to sell some Word software products next month unless they could be reconfigured to avoid infringing on a Canadian company’s patent.

In a ruling late yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stayed the U.S. District Court order. Meanwhile, a fast-track appeal on the merits continues, with oral arguments scheduled for Sept. 23, reports Computerworld.

Both Dell and Hewlett Packard filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the appeal, arguing that the Word revisions required by U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis would also require extensive, time-consuming work on their own part to reconfigure personal computers that use Word software.